


Til The End of The Road (I'll be by your side, I apologize.)

by FireSoul



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Coma, F/M, Sort Of, time masters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 12:22:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19992136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireSoul/pseuds/FireSoul
Summary: Gideon has a human body now, but whether or not it actually works is an entirely different matter. Rip waits rather impatiently for the answer to that question, and passes the time by thinking back on some key moments he's spent with her.





	Til The End of The Road (I'll be by your side, I apologize.)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DarkShade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkShade/gifts).



“Ok.”

Such a simple word, Rip thinks, perhaps a tad ironically. He must have used that word over a billion times in his life, yet he can barely recall even a handful of instances in which the situation at hand were actually ok.

This situation is hardly among those.

The word hasn’t even come from him, but from Nora Darhk, her hands on her hips and her voice a breathy huff that doesn’t sound entirely convinced.

“Now we just wait and see.”

He nods; numb, and then he catches himself so he looks up at her, and he pretends not to see the uncertainty on her face.

“Thank you.”

“Of course.” She says in return, her expression unchanged, and she’s quick to follow Dr. Palmer from the room.

Leaving him alone with Gideon.

She looks much like he’d always imagined she would, and yet so much more real than any dream could ever provide. Her hair is a bit shorter than he’d always thought, but he likes it, it looks good on her.

He reaches out cautiously and takes her hand in his, unable to help the tears that start to well up in his eyes when her skin is soft and real in his grasp. She’s on oxygen right now, things had turned bad very quickly in the seconds following Nora’s spell. They knew it was a possibility; her body not aware how to function yet might not be able to breathe on it’s own at first. Luckily she stabilized almost immediately once the mask was placed on her face, and hopefully she won’t need it much longer.

He sighs, short, relieved, but still so scared as he traces his thumb over her knuckles.

They’ve been through so much together the two of them, and sitting here with nothing but the beautiful sound of her heart monitor’s soft beeping to keep him company, he can’t help but think back on it all.

* * *

_There is a part of him that can’t believe he’s really here. After everything that happened in the academy, after he was nearly kicked out for no reason other than loving Miranda, and after she so selflessly sacrificed her place with the Time Master’s so that he may keep his. After so many degrading years, many more than what is typical, of serving as an apprentice, he can’t believe that he is finally here in The Hanger._

_Time Master Declan has seemed more irritated than proud ever since he showed up, but then again he never did agree with Miranda’s decision._

_Rip still isn’t sure he does either, but it was her choice, he couldn’t stop her, and she was going to make it regardless of his actions._

_Declan opens the loading ramp of the ship without a word._

_“The Waverider has been out of commission for quite some time.” He says as they board, and Rip is TRYING not to let his excitement show, even if he is receiving the most beat up of the hand-me-downs. “Her last Captain was a great man, served us for many years before retiring, I suppose we almost retired the ship as well.”_

_Declan stops then, in the middle of the corridor, and raises a grey eyebrow at him._

_“Can I trust that you are going to be another great man?”_

_For a moment he falters, caught off guard by the question, but he does his best to recover._

_“Yes Sir.” He says, “I promise I won’t let you down.”_

_The look Declan gives is more than enough to make it clear he has already, years ago, let him down._

_They move on to the bridge, and really the ship looks just like any other Rip has ever been on board, but there is something about looking around this one, because this is **his** ship._

_“Allow me to introduce you to the ship’s AI.” Declan says, “Gideon?”_

_Above the holo-table a light blue, minimally featured, female head appears with a smile._

_“Hello, Time Master Declan.” She says, and then turns her attention to him._

_“Gideon.” Declan says, gesturing over to him. “This is Rip Hunter, The Waverider’s new Captain.”_

_“Hello, Captain Hunter.” The AI greets him. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”_

_“You as well, Gideon.”_

* * *

“How ya holding up?”

The words pull him out of his memories.

Sara has appeared in the doorway, her arms folded across herself and her gaze lingering on Gideon.

“I’m alright.” He promises, his gaze following hers and then flitting up to the heart monitor, and then back. “Gideon is too, I believe.”

Sara nods, tiredly. It’s been a rather long day, and he was only here for the second part of it. He’s only been gone, dead, frozen in time… whatever, for a year and already so much as changed.

It may not seem like a lot, but all the little changes add up.

Sara and Ava are a proper couple.

Ms. Darhk has joined their team, and with an apparent change in the timeline so has Ms. Tomaz’s brother.

Magical creatures are a part of the world now.

History as he knows it, more or less, is no longer the reality of the world.

* * *

_He doesn’t sleep after leaving Salvation._

_It took everything in him to peel himself away, after weeks of lying low to throw the time pirate’s off their trail, as well as make a few repairs to The Waverider, he almost didn’t go._

_If not for the promise of Miranda and their unborn child waiting for him, he might have stayed._

_Jonah stayed, and he won’t deny it’s lonely that first night in the time stream._

_“Gideon?” He asks, for she is his only company now. “You feel emotions, don’t you?”  
She must. The way she speaks to him and Jonah sometimes, particularly after they make an ill-advised decision, he can’t imagine she doesn’t._

_“Of a sort.” She answers, and he thinks the pause between his question and her answer might have been almost a hair too long, as though she were thinking. “I am programed to assist my Captain and crew in protecting the timeline, and to advise them of the course of action that is most in their best interest. So, I suppose, I am programed to care.”_

_He frowns, that is hardly the answer he’d been hoping for._

_“Yes,” he says, “But… You think, don’t you? For yourself? Do you ever wonder if we’re doing the right thing? Leaving history as it is rather than improving it?”_

_This time, Rip knows he is not imagining it when the silence drags out._

_Though, eventually, she answers him._

_“We should arrive at The Vanishing Point within the next six hours, Captain.”_

* * *

“Rip.”

“Gah!” He jumps awake, (when had he fallen asleep?) and nearly falls from his chair.

Ava is looking at him, worry etched into her features as she backs off. The room has gone dark around him, at some point, but not so dark he can’t see he is about to receive an order from someone he once gave orders to, it seems to be a pattern in his life.

Speaking of which, the first person to ever realize he was full of bull more often than he wasn’t, the first to realize _she_ was really in charge, but oftentimes followed his lead anyway (and look where it got her) is still sleeping soundly in the bed next to him.

With her oxygen mask gone.

“She’s making progress Rip.” Ava assures him. “Fast progress. There’s no reason to believe her body will reject Nora and John’s magic. Go sleep.”

“I was sleeping.” It’s a weak, no; it’s a pathetic response. One that earns him nothing more than an angry glare from Ava.

But, he stands by it.

Ava rolls her eyes, her stance tightens; she is thinking over her next move. But the fact of the matter is that there is no next move, no argument, which she can throw at him that will get him to leave this chair.

* * *

_“Open this door Gideon!”_

_“I’m sorry Captain,” Her voice chimes from the ceiling, though he hardly hears it between his fists pounding against the door and the blood boiling in his ears. “But you need to calm down first.”_

_“Shut up!”_

_He shutters with regret the instant that phrase leaves his lips, but he punches the heavy steel of the door all the same and doesn’t apologize._

_“I need to get to the Time Council!”_

_“What you need to get, Captain, is some rest. If you address the council in this state-”_

_“Oh shut up!”_

_He can already hear Mother’s nagging voice in his mind, as well as feel the light slap of her hand on his arm. He knows better than to act like this, throwing a tantrum like a child. But this is justified. Miranda and Jonas…._

_He needs to get to the Time Council._

_Gideon doesn’t speak again for a long while, not until after he has wailed himself into exhaustion and taken a seat against a crate, nothing else to do in the loading dock._

_“I might advise not shouting at the Time Council to “shut up” in the event that your mission does not go according to plan. Best of luck, Captain.”_

* * *

It’s been days now.

Fast progress indeed, he thinks to himself with an impatient huff. He has been sitting in this chair in the Time Bureau med-bay for nearly a week, and aside from no longer needing her oxygen mask there has been no change in Gideon’s condition. The Legends and their friends, nearly all of who are practical strangers to him, look less and less hopeful with each visit. Sara, Ava, and Raymond keep trying to get him to leave.

But where would he go?

He’s near certain his apartment is no longer there; he’s been dead for over a year, surely the landlord has rented it out by now. Besides, it isn’t like there is anything in that apartment he’s eager to get back to. There is no family, no pictures; it was always just bare bones and a mattress to sleep on. He was never there when he was running The Time Bureau, always telling himself his work was too important to be wasting time watching television or whatever else it would be that he would do in an empty apartment.

He shutters thinking about it, and wonders how it is he managed to lie so profoundly even to himself.

The answer is lying right before him.

* * *

_The Time Bureau is working._

_Five years strong, no disasters. The opposite, in fact. History is on a safe and stable course. There have been no dire aberrations, missions are running smoothly, and new recruits are showing progress. Not to mention their science department has managed to improve on time travel itself._

_They’ve come up with time couriers: small devices that allow for individuals to travel through time without the need of a clunky ship._

_Which, up until recently, hadn’t even been an option._

_He knew when he founded The Bureau that time would eventually catch up with him and he would stumble upon The Legends, it was part of the reason he went all the way back to 2012 to start with. It was near enough in their own pasts that they weren’t likely to show up too soon, yet far enough that he could have either a well-established system in place by the time they caught up, or he could have failed and found a different path in life. When it turned out to be the former outcome he was proud, gleeful even, but that victory is proving to be bittersweet._

_He must prevent any disaster like them from ever happening again, no matter the cost._

_“Gideon.” He pleads; they key for her systems in its slot but not yet turned, his fingers gripping it firmly. “Please understand. If there were another way…” He really doesn’t know what it is he’s trying to tell her, because there is no other way._

_“You have my word that The Waverider will continue to be used for training purposes.” He tries, thinking that perhaps it might put her at ease, to know he isn’t simply scrapping the ship. No. He would never._

_“Of course,” she finally says, a wounded edge to her voice that he’s expected and yet it hurts him all the same. “Goodbye, Rip.”_

* * *

He was – is - such a stupid, stupid man.

He wondered back then, often, why he did turn her off. He would tell himself it was necessary, because the Waverider needed to be off in order to use it for training purposes, and she was part of the ship.

However, for a stupid man, he can’t quite seem to fool himself forever.

He knows, now at the forefront of his mind, and back then probably somewhere deep down, that the reason he did it was stupid and selfish.

He had finally done something _right_ in creating the Time Bureau. After all of his mistakes and his failures, he had done something good. But then The Legends crashed, Gideon with them, and he just knew that somewhere in the Time Bureau, something had to be wrong. It was his creation, of course it wasn’t as good as it seemed, he just hadn’t known where the fault lie and he didn’t want her finding it first.

Of course, the fault was him.

He wipes some of the unshed tears from his eyes with one hand, the one which isn’t holding hers.

“I am so sorry Gideon.” He blubbers, “Truly I am.”

He shudders, tries to breathe and compose himself enough to speak even as the fears fill his head.

He has made so, so many mistakes. He sees that now, missing an entire year of one’s own life can certainly give you some perspective. He’s tried; oh he has tried so many times, to find his place. From the Time Masters, to Salvation, the Legends, and the Time Bureau… but in one way or another he’s always managed to ruin it.

He can’t have ruined her, them, too.

His eyes are burning with tears by the time he gives in, accepts that he isn’t going to be able to compose himself.

“But please… I don’t know what I’ll do if you don’t wake up.”


End file.
